NYIndex: Fall From Rangers Leads to Jump in Ranking

Former New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella, top, calls to his players during the semifinals in the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs in Boston on May 25.

John Tortorella’s firing from the New York Rangers sent the former head coach up the NYIndex this week as media outlets and experts speculated what the move would mean for the NHL team.

Tortorella led the Rangers to four playoff appearances and was shocked when he was fired last week, reports Journal reporter Mike Sielski. He writes that Rangers general manager and president Glen Sather said in a conference call:

Every coach has a shelf life. I’ve told every guy that I’ve hired, ‘You know, at some point and time this is going to change.’ Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup. We didn’t achieve that goal this year. So I had to make the decision, and I did.

Mr. Tortorella moved to the 9th spot in the Sports category and to number 68 in the list of the top 100 most influential people in New York. The NYIndex ranks individuals on the basis of an influence score generated by media-archive service Factiva, as well as the contribution of their industry to the gross domestic product, and their social media activity.

Read a roundup by Mr. Sielski of the candidates that have potential to replace Mr. Tortorella here.

Chairman and president of Fox News, Roger Ailes, also moved up the Index, to the 29th spot on the top 100, after chatter that two – or possibly even three – books about Mr. Ailes and the TV channel are in the works.